In this episode Oh Shoot! podcast, Cassidy Lynne talks about 7 ways to set goals for the new year.
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In this episode, Cassidy Lynne gives you 7 steps to creating a successful 2025 schedule & help you achieve your goals this year.
Let’s Get Into The Goals For The New Year!
Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of oh shoot! I’m your host Cassidy Lynne, Happy Monday. This is the first episode of 2025. So, welcome to the new year I am so glad that all of you guys are here with me in this crazy year. I don’t know if it’s just cuz I’m getting older or what. But I feel like the years just go by so much faster, but the days go by so slow. Does that make sense? ANYWAY, welcome to 2025 I’m so glad that you guys are here. It is the start of a new year which means some of you guys probably took a break from podcast or from even thinking about work during December. Which makes sense, it is completely understandable because I feel like December is really overwhelming and there’s a lot of expectations in December. It is the new year, which means we have a new goal setting episode!
A couple of updates for you guys! I haven’t recorded an episode since I had Christmas so yeah, Merry Christmas it’s a little late lol! I had a good holiday season it was fun. A little different for me this year but yeah it was still good. The new year was fun I actually hosted a New Year’s Eve party which is very unlike me I don’t really host stuff like that! So, it was a lot of fun there was like this hockey game that was local and we ended up doing that for New Year’s and then they opened up an ice skating rink afterwards for everyone to like ice skate. Then they had like indoor fireworks too which I didn’t even know that was a thing, but it was a lot of fun and then everyone came to my house afterwards for a little New Year Eve party!
Top 7 Goals For The New Year
#1 Re-evaluate your 2024 finances & goals
At the start of a new year it is so good to re-evaluate how your 2024 went. So, look back at your last year, see how did things go and an important piece of starting the new year is setting goals. You know, having a budget set so if you already did that at the beginning of 2024 you can look back on your 2024 year now and say. Okay how did I do in relation to my goal goes, was there anything I missed out on? did I go over budget on anything? under budget, obviously these are things that are great to look at halfway through the year as well. Just so it’s not like, oh it’s the end of the year, I didn’t do well and there’s nothing I can do about it. If you evaluate yourself halfway through the year or even like quarterly that’s going to help you make sure that you’re staying on track.
When I look back at my year, one of the first thing I look at are my finances. I’m looking at how much money came in; I am also looking where that money came from. Let’s talk about my case for a second, a big part of my income comes from shopify which is where I sell my digital products. So when looking at my finances in 2025 I’m going to lean more towards that because that’s what’s bringing m more money. Another thing I look at is my spending like how much money did I spend on which category. For me I spent a lot in travel, software and apps. I also take a look at my percentage of expenses to what I ended up making.
#2 Write out your BIG DREAM GOALS for 2025
My favorite way to do this is either pencil and paper or on a whiteboard. I find that when I physically make my big dream goals a reality in front of me by physically writing them out, it makes them feel more real. I take a lot of notes on my phone; therefore, I don’t feel that a note on my phone means as much to me. what writing our big goals for 2025 is going to do for us is give us something to work on and work towards in 2025.
#3 Write out your small, less daunting goals
Let’s talk about my big dream goal this year in case it helps you guys set your goals. My dream big goal this year is to host an international workshop. I’ve already taken steps to help me get there. That’s one of my goals and I want that to happen this year. So, after I write my dream big goals, I’m writing my small goals. For this I’m writing out things like a merch drop or shooting in a certain location. There a lot of goals that I have for this year but they are not like this huge things that take a really long time and a lot of planning.
#4 Mapping out 2025
So when we map out 2025, this is going to look different for everyone. But for me, like I said I’m a pen and paper person. So, what I did was, print a month-by-month calendar and based on that I pulled up my google calendar to write out the things I already had scheduled. I put on my calendar, wedding that I have, engagement shoots, travel, and some personal stuffs going on. So, after writing this on your calendar that you already had planned. What you are going to do is look back at your big and small goals that you have for the year and write them on your calendar on dates that you are not busy with other things and that way work on the goals that you have.
#5 Weekly schedules
So, after mapping out your 2025 we are going to do weekly schedules. A weekly schedule is super important to make sure you achieve al the things I your calendar. I want to encourage you to just make your year exactly how you want it to happen. Even if those things don’t happen, it’s like you’re dreaming. Something like, okay I have a couple of extra days in this month, I am going to take a trip here or I’m going to shoot this. So, when we are making our weekly schedule, we are always referring to the 2025 map.
#6 Hang up your calendar & always look at it
Having a calendar where you can see it, is really helpful because it keeps you on track! You can also make it digital and that way if you are out and about but you need to reference something, you can always check it on your phone or computer!
#7 Things you can add to your goal list in 2025 as a photographer
- Plan for retirement
- Upgrade one piece of gear
- Attend an educational event
- Travel to this place
- Upgrade your website
- Get rebranded
Show Notes:
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